Friday, July 22, 2011

Del Shannon Runaway



I have a friend who calls songs that get stuck in your head "ear worms".  This is the ear worm that I woke up with in my head today.

The thing about ear worms is that you have a connection of some sort with them.  It may simply be that you heard that song one time too many (or a thousand times too many) or that you connect it with an event or memory.

This one has a few connections for me.  As a wee small rabbit, my way older siblings were very into the Dick Clark sort of TV shows.  I recall very clearly watching Del Shannon lip-sinc this song.  I have visions of my sisters dancing around the den in their socks... with boo-foo hair dos and sixties make-up... swooning over ol' Del.  Sighs and giggles.  Big boo and I, rolling our eyes to their teen insanity and silly dance moves like the swim or boogaloo.  This clip of it tickles me... those teen bunnies hopping around their idol.

Singing along into my hair brush in the privacy of my bedroom.  Ha.  I can't sing to save my soul... at least not in tune.  Later on and for all these years, this particular song has been a constant in the shower show line up.  I love those high notes and dropping down to gravel and gritty. 

It left me for a time.  Forgotten and replaced by "my" music, not that of my sisters.  Then made a fierce return to ear wormdom via the TV series Crime Story.  That put a new connection into my head... a little strip about a bad man waking up in a strange phony town full of mannequins. A vision of poetic justice in a corrupt world.  Now when this ear worm visits me, that video memory plays in my head with it.  The look on that bad man's face when he finally figured out where he was and what was about to BOOM!

There... now I can set the ear worm free until the next time.  Sorry if you caught it.  For me, talking about it, gets rid of it.  Though as ear worms go, this one at least has some fun memories attached.  Unlike "They're Coming To Take Me Away".  I don't want to go there!  Oh crap.  Too late. Heavy sigh.




16 comments:

  1. hahaha, i avoided listening so the earworm wouldn't attack but mere mention of "they're coming to take me away" well, that's lodged in there now.

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  2. lime- I am so sorry! I hated that song so much that I barked up my shins repeatedly while trying to get to the radio in the dark to shut it off.

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  3. I like this song. It was used for a TV show when I was a kid and liked it instantly. Totally understand the ear worm thing. Right now I have nothing on repeat in the membrane but I am sure that will change soon especially after I just heard this song. Have a good weekend.

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  4. Mr. Shife- I know, its very catchy! I hope you avoid ear worms and have a wonderful... which I am sure you will with the lovely Mrs. Shife and that marvelous boy... weekend!

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  5. Oo, I played this song and remembered the movie "Children of the Corn". Lol. Two little kids were playing the song on their record player in their house over and over again.

    Great song, though!

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  6. Great song and I liked the image of you singing. :)

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  7. I think I've traced the source of most of my earworms these days: the supermarket. Seems every time I get out of there I've got some damn tune running through my head. Most of the time I don't even realize it's seeping in as I wait in line.

    Then, on the drive home, I'm all like...

    ... keep feeling fascination, passion burning, love so stro-ong... WTH?

    Oh. Right.

    Hope you're having a great summer. I'll be back to regular visiting in the fall, I promise ;-)

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  8. "A constant in the shower show line up." So true. I like to sing when I'm driving alone... Joplin's Bobby McGee is one of my favorites. That can be your earworm.

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  9. Tara- That is so funny! Children of the Corn was on TV the other day... maybe that's how it got into my head.

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  10. Hi Shopgirl! I think all girls have done that at one time or another. We are a silly bunch at that age.

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  11. Cricket- So that's where it comes from! Now that you mention it, the market affects me the same way or I find myself humming while shopping to music I'd not normally listen to.
    I am having a wonderful summer and I'm sure that you are very busy these days with the boys out of school. Keep having fun!

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  12. Cube- Once more, my blog twin... Me and Bobby McGee is one of my favorite songs to sing too.

    Hey... Shark Week is almost upon us! I saw a great little video about a dog biting a shark and scaring it off. I thought of you!

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  13. From the German ohrwurm. I get earworms all the time. Mostly I don't mind, unless it's an annoying song. Like, ahem this one. :-)

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  14. I don't mind this earworm much. I think it's kind of a cool song, but I mostly associate it with a tv show called Crime Story. A version was used as a theme song...good show!

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  15. I can get earworms, but seem to be mostly immune to earworms from rock songs before 1966 or so, which all tend to sound alike to me and don't do a lot for me (with few exceptions).

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  16. Do you think we were separated at birth? ;-)

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